I'm a "Photographer" now that I know the word "Aperture"

You may have noticed that the quality of the photos I've been posting have been pretty lack luster... it's because I've been using my iPhone for everything since our vacation (not to hate on the iPhone camera... it's actually not bad).  On our trip to Cabo, Kris dropped our DSLR camera at the airport, and while the actual camera is fine (thank god) we found the lens in a million little pieces when we took the lens cap off.  Sad!!

Since then, I've been on the hunt for a new one, but as many people with these kinds of cameras know, the lens is the most expensive part!  A good lens will run well into the thousands of dollars, but for what I'm looking for, that won't be necessary.

Basically, I want a lens that takes great shots up close.  So I can document my projects, our life, and take wonderful photos of family and friends.  I was so sad not to be able to bring the camera to my mom's birthday!

I'm determined to find a good replacement that is a moderate upgrade from our original lens, so I've been reading a lot of reviews online.  If anyone else has ever tried to research technical gadgets online (phones, TVs, cameras, lenses) you know how confusing it can be.  There are a lot of resources - some better than others - but even the best end up throwing around super technical terms that are intimidating and unhelpful for us non-savvy photo takers, but one of my favorite bloggers Emily Clark, featured a guest post on lenses recently, and it was SO helpful!

For me, being able to read simple advice from a trusted source (a professional photographer, on a blog I read daily) means more than any CNET editor's review, so obviously I paid attention!

The recommendation was to go with the Cannon EF 50mm f1.8 ii lens.  Gibberish people!  I have no clue what this lens is!! Luckily, Google has all the answers a girl could ever want, so from there I was able to solidify my decision.  I checked out the Google Images for this lens, and of course came across a ton of pictures that people had taken with it!  Boom.

Great pictures right?!  I realize now how creepy it is to have posted pictures of two random guys - one taking a smoke outside, and the other picking his nose (what are people using this lens for?!), but I think these portraits capture the "aperture" (wow, look at me using my new-found photographer lingo)... for those not in the know, aperture just means how blurry the background becomes when focusing in on a subject... apparently, this lens has a "low aperture" (aka extra fuzzy background).

What else do I love about this lens?? It's cheap inexpensive - well... inexpensive as far as lenses go.  It's $104 on Amazon right now, so in comparison to several thousand (or even several hundred) it feels like an absolute steal!

Now that I've found the portraiture lens I want, it's time to start researching wider angle lenses - any recommendations??